Among Americans who care enough about the democracy in which they live to have an opinion on the single biggest threat to democracy, an overwhelming majority believe that Donald Trump should be criminally charged over the January 6th attack by a huge margin – 17 points, which is a “landslide” in American politics nowadays.

According to Mediaite:

In a poll taken as the Jan. 6 hearings rolled out, Americans approve of criminally charging former President Donald Trump for his role in the attack — by a whopping 17-point margin.

Respondents to a Navigator Research poll released this week were asked “Do you support or oppose the Department of Justice filing criminal charges against Donald Trump for his involvement with the attack on the Capitol on January 6th?”

The responses were overwhelmingly in support of charging Trump, with 54 percent support versus only 37 percent opposition.

Assuming that this “Navigator Research” poll turns out to be done scientifically, using all the standards that they normally follow, this is a groundbreaking poll.

“Law” is a funny thing. One can write all the laws one wants but if the majority of society doesn’t really believe in them because they’re either arbitrarily applied or “get in the way,” then you get Russia. Russia has laws, absolutely. They have judges, they have trials, and they don’t mean a damned thing because no one has any faith in them. Everyone knows that if you cause trouble, you are in trouble, whether you really deserve to be or not.

If this country has the spine to stick up for democracy and punish Trump for putting that democracy in jeopardy, then the law has a decent chance to survive, which means democracy might survive. It also could very well mean that the hearings are having a very sobering effect on the American public. This is not a “Biden versus Republican” poll because Biden would likely be behind in that type of poll. In that way, it’s not even all that partisan. Yes, the true MAGAs make up 33% of that 37%. But that 17-point difference is just massive because, in a generic Democrat versus Republican poll right now, it’d be even or Democrats behind.

It also gives DOJ “cover” to do the right thing. Because another reality in law is that one can violate the law with striking clarity, but if 80% of the population believes it should be ignored, then you don’t have a functioning law and it should be ignored.

But that’s not the case. By a significant margin, most Americans want Trump to face consequences, and that is a very good thing, especially in light of DOJ’s upcoming decisions on whether to charge Trump. We aren’t even talking about the “obvious” crime of having the top-secret files.

This is a very good sign.

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[email protected], @JasonMiciak, with Nicole Hickman